Page 245 of Irreversible

Without my sister’s loss, how many other lives would have been taken? How many families would be missing someone?

You were never my sidekick, Sara. You werethe catalyst.

“I won’t be long,” she says softly, standing on her toes to kiss me on the cheek. Her hands drag down my arms, threadingthrough my fingers for a minute, before they drop. “See you soon.”

As she walks to the Jeep, the female bluebird takes off from the hollow, zipping ahead of her in a sky-hued blur.

Everly starts the vehicle, rolling the windows down to give me a wave. The stereo kicks on, playing a cover of the song she’s had on loop—fitting, given our four-legged neighbors who seem to prefer grazing in our field over their own.

The lyrics reach me, a reminder that the people who truly love you won’t leave. Not for being broken, and not for being bitter. Nothing will drag them away.

Not even when it seems like they’re gone.

As the male bluebird follows his mate, I watch the woman I love pull down our long gravel driveway, raced by a gold palomino with a cream-colored mane.

My whisper is lost in the wind.

“See you soon.”

EPILOGUE

“Hey, Grant.”

I look up from the table, where I’ve been sketching a skull, using a real model that sits in the center.

This place is so cool.

John Richards, a senior lab tech, stands in the doorway of Dad’s office. “I’ve got that last run of DNA results you asked for.”

My father spins away from the computer, looking over the top of his glasses. “An email would have sufficed. You didn’t need to come all the way up here from the basement.”

“I was on my way out. Besides, I see you brought our favorite future scientist.” John waves at me. “Heard you had an ordeal. Glad you’re okay.”

I smile back. This sling is a pain, but I’d go through it again just to be able to skip school and hang out here.

While Dad looks over the printout, John slips a latex glove over his hand, turning the now-empty hourglass over on the desk, giving it a cursory examination. “The ashes came out of this?”

Ashes?

Dad hums a confirmation, rubbing his chin. Then he turns back to the computer and compares the results to a page on his screen. I’ve been trying to let him work, but I’m dying to know.

“Looks old. Where did you get it?” John holds it up to the light, looking through the glass. “Crime scene?”

Dad gestures to me. “Aiden fell on top of it. It was out in the back of our property, buried in an old cellar where the original house once stood. No one’s gone digging through there in years. I thought everything had been cleared out.”

“Interesting heirloom. Ashes in place of sand, huh?”

He didn’t tell me that.

“Indeed,” my father replies. “Dates back a hundred years or so.”

“And your property…it’s been passed down through your family for several generations, right?”

“Long time, yeah.”

John sets the hourglass down carefully. “So, it could be cremated ancestors, or a family dog?”

“Neither. They’re human, but I ran them against my DNA and it’s not a family member.”

---